Enough is a 2002 Hollywood psychological thriller. It
stars Jennifer Lopez as Slim, a young waitress who one day finds the man of her
dreams in the diner where she works. A few years later, they have a young daughter, Gracie (Tessa
Allen), and it is revealed that her "perfect" husband, Mitch (Billy Campbell) is
abusive towards her and is cheating on her.
Cast
Synopsis
The film opens with Slim working as a diner waitress at the cafe. After a customer (Noah
Wyle) makes lewd remarks toward Slim, another customer, Mitch, defends her honor and forces the first customer out. Slim
is smitten by the chivalrous Mitch and quickly falls in love with him. The film then skips forward in time, showing Mitch and
Slim's wedding, their first house, and the birth of their daughter, Gracie. Throughout all these milestones, however, Mitch
slowly reveals a darker, threatening and almost sociopathic side to himself. He drops verbal hints in casual conversation, often
stating that he's a man "who always gets what he wants," and becomes steadily more distant and unattentive toward Slim.
Eventually, Slim discovers that Mitch has been cheating on her with several women. Her distress and confusion is coupled by
Mitch's attitude about it: He feels no wrongdoing in his adultery and announces that he has no plans to stop. When Slim threatens
to leave, however, Mitch loses his temper and beats her, first slapping her, then quickly progressing to violent punches. Mitch
makes it clear that Slim and Gracie are his possessions, and if Slim tries going to the police for help, he will use his money
and power to frame her as a drug addict and unfit mother, thereby gaining sole custody of Gracie. Slim eventually musters the
nerve to go to the police herself, only to discover that the system is indeed against her - should she file a report, she stands
a good chance of being attacked by Mitch again and losing Gracie in the process as well.
Slim succumbs to feelings of hopelessness about her situation and confides to Ginny, her best friend and coworker at the
diner. Given their limited options, Ginny encourages Slim to secretly run away from Mitch with Gracie in tow. With the help of
two other diner employees sympathetic to Slim's plight, the four organize a daring midnight escape from Mitch's house. Mitch,
however, discovers Slim running away with Gracie, and begins beating her to death. The ensuing noise draws Ginny and the two
others into the house, where they manage to rescue Slim and Gracie and keep Mitch at bay long enough to escape.
The four realize that none of their houses are safe, because Mitch knows all of their addresses. Slim and Gracie then stay at
a motel, but the relentless Mitch finds them there and begins breaking into their room. Climbing out a window, Slim and Gracie
run aboard a bus, just narrowly escaping Mitch a second time.
Eventually, Slim and Gracie are able to escape to Seattle, where she meets up
with her former boyfriend Joe (Dan Futterman), who still has feelings for her. However,
Mitch has more connections than Slim imagined - the rude man from the diner at the beginning of the film is noneother than a
corrupt police officer named Robbie, who secretly works for Mitch. Robbie reveals that he and Mitch have a long history of
scamming women as they did to Slim, working as a team to corner women into defenseless situations.
Using Robbie's connections as a cop, Mitch is able to track Slim almost anywhere she goes; Mitch also manages to cancel or
freeze all of Slim's financial assets, thereby leaving her destitute and with no money. Mitch soon tracks Slim down in Seattle
and sends three thugs to Joe's residence in search of his wife and daughter. Slim and Gracie manage to hide behind a heater vent
during this encounter and very narrowly avoid being found and captured.
Realizing that she can't stay in any one place for very long, Slim flees from Joe with Gracie. Mother and daughter essentially
become fugitives, embarking on a never-ending sojourn across the country while trying to
hide from Mitch and his henchmen. Slim resorts to using wigs and other physical disguises, limits her contact with the outside
world, changes her name as well as Gracie's, and booby-traps her residences for protection. Unfortunately, all of these measures
fail and they are once again tracked down when they reach Michigan, again only barely escaping
from Mitch's henchmen.
After this incident, Slim realizes that her ongoing attempt at running away has failed and will no longer help either herself
or Gracie. With a child custody hearing in Los Angeles in one month, Slim consults a San Francisco lawyer. Just like the police
earlier, the lawyer tells Slim that the odds stacked against her are high. The lawyer also informs her that, should she go to the
custody hearing, Mitch will be able to easily find and kill her if he wants.
Slim then has an epiphany that she has had "enough" of this ongoing torture, and decides to make a one-on-one stand against
Mitch prior to the hearing. She secretly sends Gracie to live with Ginny for a month and spends the next few weeks training in
Krav Maga combat techniques with a personal trainer, who builds in her a confident,
confrontational fighting spirit that Slim had lacked up until that point. She learns not to fear Mitch even though he is bigger,
stronger, and a man, and increases her speed, stamina and agility in a series of montages.
After Slim has trained, she sneaks into Mitch's new house in Los Angeles while he is off at work. She then spends the day
preparing for the fight-to-the-finish between her and her husband that night. Using a metal detector, she finds and gets rid of
Mitch's various firearms (hidden throughout the house), and she also hides any kitchen knives or other objects that could be
wielded as weapons. She familiarizes herself with the layout of the house, practicing mock fighting scenarios, and plants letters
of evidence in Mitch's nightstand (which will serve to inform the police of Mitch's past violent history against Slim). She also
cuts the phone cables in the house and installs a device that blocks out cell phone signals. She dons fighting attire and heavy
combat boots,(her hands are wrapped with rings on her fingers to enhance punches) and silently awaits the evening.
Mitch arrives at home that evening and, upon entering his house, all the lights go out. As Mitch discovers to his chagrin that
all his guns, phones and other things are out of commission, Slim appears and challenges Mitch to hand-to-hand combat. She
surprises Mitch by her new-found courage, and further surprises him by striking the first of several blows, all the while mocking
his masculinity. At first, Mitch doesn't fight back, trying to avoid fighting, but Slim persists by repeatedly punching and
punching. Enraged, Mitch charges at her, only to swing and miss, as Slim has hoped; her plan is to attack him while
simultaneously dodging his punches, thereby wearing him out so she can then take the upper hand in the end. Her plan seems to be
working, as Mitch becomes more angry by Slim's mocking words, and more exhausted by chasing after her. Eventually Mitch charges
at Slim and she succeeds in hitting his head against a marble countertop, knocking him out cold.
Slim pounces on this opportunity and grabs a heavy stone cutting board. Preparing to give him the final blow that will end it
all, she suddenly throws the stone away - Slim realizes she can't do it; unlike Mitch, she's not a violent person. She turns off
her cell-phone blocker and hastily calls Ginny for advice. Suddenly, Mitch regains consciousness and takes Slim by surprise,
knocking her down with a floor lamp. Mitch hangs up on Ginny and glowers over a prostrate Slim, whom he thinks he has defeated.
Just then, a voice-over of Slim's trainer is heard, galvanizing her into action and giving her the right tools to defeat Mitch
once and for all. Slim then comes to and manages to knock Mitch to the floor. She throws unrelenting multiple punches, all the
while thinking about each and every punch that Mitch had ever given her or Gracie. Finally, Slim kicks Mitch squarely in the
stomach, sending him falling backwards over a bannister. He makes a fatal landing on a glass dining table below; it is finally
over.
Slim is then seen throwing away her fighting paraphernalia into a nearby body of water. She sits outside Mitch's house as
police cars are heard heading towards the house. An officer informs Slim that Ginny had called the police to save her. She
reveals that Mitch is inside; upon being asked if Mitch is still armed and dangerous, she merely shakes her head "no."
The film then cuts to an airport scene, where Slim awaits anxiously for Gracie. Ginny and Gracie appear and an overjoyed Slim
caresses her daughter. Gracie asks Slim where they're going and she replies by saying, "Wherever you want." Gracie then says she
would like to go to the Emerald City (Seattle). Slim responds by saying, "I was thinking the same thing."
In the end credits, Slim, Joe, and Gracie are together on a ferry, enjoying the beautiful scenery. Slim and Joe hold hands,
presumably back together and happy.
Critical reception
The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Metacritic, the film had an average score of 25 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.[2] On Rotten Tomatoes, 21% of critics gave
the film positive reviews, based on 121 reviews.[3]
Renee Graham of The Boston Globe said the film "shamelessly exploits the
horror of domestic violence for melodramatic, cheap thrills."[4] BBC film critic Jamie Russell said "the crassness of this
reactionary thriller is matched only by the ridiculousness of its premise."[4] Jim Judy of Screen it! said "it's just too bad that so much
of the film is heavy-handed, manipulative and contrived, or simply so hard to believe."[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a nasty item masquerading as a feminist revenge picture."[4] New York
Magazine critic Peter Rainer said "Clumsy, obvious, preposterous, the movie will likely set the cause of woman
warriors back decades."[4] Richard Roeper said
"It's a loathsome movie, it really is and it makes absolutely no sense."[4]
Joe Leydon of the San Francisco Examiner called it "a juicy, pulpy and
entirely shameless melodrama, the kind of well-tooled popcorn flick that manages the difficult feat of appealing to your worst
instincts without making you feel ashamed of yourself."[4] Joe Baltake of The Sacramento Bee said the
film was "perhaps the guiltiest guilty pleasure in a long time."[4]
Box office performance
The film ranked #5 at the U.S box office its opening weekend, grossing $14 million in 2,623 theaters.[5] The film had a budget of $38 million and
grossed $40 million domestically. Worlwide, the film grossed a total of $51.8 million.[1]
References
External links
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